My Transsexual Summer: The Shock Of The New

"Fancy getting sozzled tonight? Try the Trans Documentary Drinking Game, something of a transgender community in-joke. The rules are simple: for every cliche, take one shot of tequila. US writer Helen Boyd, author of My Husband Betty, lists 35 classic clangers, including: trans woman putting on makeup (two shots for reverse camera shot into mirror); showing "before" photos; any reference to genital surgery that includes "finally becoming a woman"; and anything with a trans woman sitting in an above-the-knee skirt, "posed so you can see what great gams she has". Camera in the operating room? Down the whole bottle.
"All these silly tropes appear in the first episode of My Transsexual Summer, Channel 4's new primetime reality doc. Yet MTS does have something original to offer: it gives trans people – at least seven – a voice..."

Paris Lees writing in The Guardian about My Transsexual Summer.
"The first major piece of trans-themed output since Channel 4 signed a Memorandum of Understanding with my campaign group, Trans Media Watch...
"The document suggests treating trans people with accuracy, dignity and respect. Pretty radical, huh?"
So Channel 4 has got Paris Lees, a transsexual, to work as a consultant on the series, and The Guardian asked a transsexual to write about the programme.
Do you think these crazy new-fangled ideas will catch on?

• Watch My Transsexual Summer here.